Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image processing apparatuses and control methods thereof, and particularly relates to an image display technique.
Description of the Related Art
When browsing images saved in a memory card, a hard disk drive, or the like, it is difficult to display a desired image efficiently when there are many images present. Accordingly, methods have been proposed in which multiple images are displayed simultaneously, images are displayed while skipping a certain number of images, and so on in response to a user operation. Meanwhile, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-101910 discloses a playback method in which when a plurality of related images obtained through continuous shooting, bracket shooting, or the like are interspersed with normally-shot images, a user can switch between a method of switching images among the related images and a method of switching the image to the next normally-shot image.
Recently, image capture apparatuses called light field cameras that are capable of obtaining light field data (light ray spatial information) are garnering attention. The image sensor of a light field camera is provided with a microlens array, and a plurality of pixels are assigned to each microlens. Accordingly, a signal representing the intensity of light incident from a specific direction (light field data) can be obtained from each of the plurality of pixels assigned to a single microlens. Carrying out a process for focusing this light field data on a virtual imaging plane makes it possible to reconstruct an image focused on a subject at a different distance than the subject that was in focus at the time of shooting (a refocus image).
Here, in the case where image data to be displayed is image data from which a plurality of images can be generated, such as light field data, a situation where one wishes to switch the image data and a situation where one wishes to switch the image to be generated without switching the image data are conceivable.
However, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-101910 switches the playback method based on whether images are a plurality of images related to each other at the time of shooting or independent images, and thus image data from which a plurality of images can be generated will be handled as independent images.